After her sophomore season on the Savannah Country Day soccer team, Natalie Goodman made the difficult decision to leave the Hornet squad to focus on her club soccer team in Atlanta.

Goodman is one of the top high school players in the country, and her choice to play with and against some of the nation’s best players paid off.

Earlier this month, Goodman was named to the United States Under-18 Women’s National team player pool. The pool is comprised of the top 50 ranked players in the United States in her age group.

The selection is something that Goodman has been working toward for the last few years. As a member of the pool, she is eligible to be called up for the National Team camp, and she could end up playing with the U.S. U-18 team in international competition. In two years, she also has a chance to join the U-20 World Cup team,

“I was so excited when I found out,” said Goodman, 17, who has made a verbal commitment to play at the University of Georgia. “At first I was in shock — so I kept refreshing the website, and my name was still there.”

Goodman was been playing in the US Soccer Olympic Development Program since she was 13. The ODP program starts at the state level, but Goodman climbed the ladder quickly. She has been chosen to play for the US Region III squad, which includes 12 states from North Carolina to Texas, all three times she attended the Region ODP camp tournament. As a member of the Region III squad, Goodman had the chance to compete in Costa Rica. She is a regular at National Training Centers across the country.

Goodman’s club team is the GSA Phoenix ECNL team based in Atlanta — a member of the Elite Clubs National League, which includes the top 74 teams in the country. Andy Trevers coaches the team, and he has been impressed with Goodman on and off the pitch.

“She is in a very unique situation living in Savannah while playing for a team based in Atlanta,” Trevers said. “She is not able to train with us full time, which makes everything she has accomplished even more amazing.

“Natalie was elected as the captain of our team a couple years ago, even though she can’t be here 100 percent of the time. That shows the respect everyone has for her as a player and individual.”

Goodman plays attacking and defensive midfielder, as well as center back for her club team. She said she was selected for the under-18 national pool as a center back.

“I missed a lot of time with the Country Day team because of my club commitments as a sophomore,” Goodman said. “I thought I missed too much and couldn’t make a full commitment to my high school team. It was a tough decision to leave because it’s hard to maintain those friendships when you’re not out there every day. But I’ve developed great friends on my Phoenix team.”

Road warrior

Goodman travels to Atlanta for as many practices as she can, and the team plays games from North Carolina to Florida on weekends. She said she was only in Savannah for one weekend last fall, but she still maintained her focus in the classroom, where she maintained a 4.0 GPA. And playing against top level competition has helped her lift her game to new heights.

“It’s really helped me improve in my speed of play and in the speed of my decision making,” Goodman said. “The higher you go in soccer, the faster things get — and you have to be on top of your game.”

Goodman was recruited by a host of schools — including Auburn, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Penn, Florida and Virginia. But she chose the Bulldogs because she feels Georgia is a team on the rise.

“We’ve got a great recruiting class, and I think I’ll be able to have an immediate impact,” said Goodman, who plans to graduate from SCD in December and enroll at Georgia. “And I wanted to represent my state’s school — I thought it would be cool to do that.”

Trevers believes Goodman, who is ranked as the No. 1 player in the class of 2014 in Georgia by TopDrawer Soccer, will excel in college.

“Natalie is the engine on every team she plays on,” Trevers said. “She has elevated herself to a different level in the last few years. And as good as she is on the field, she is 10 times better of a person off it. She has a lot of character.”